Thumbnail studies from today, lookin' at some killer concept art and trying to reverse-engineer the process to absorb some of their design sensibilities.Lots of fun, super tiring, I kinda pooped out on the last row. xD

I was basically just trying to draw them in a way where I could learn what elements were being used and why. Basically asking myself, if I had to draw these concepts originally, how would I come to the same conclusions that they did?

Plus, you observe things a lot more carefully when you draw them. If you just look at a concept and go, "that's cool" you're only getting an impression of it, but if you go in and draw the whole thing from scratch you notice all the repeating shapes, the storytelling motifs, which areas they added details and which ones they left empty, etc.

It's also useful to study them as thumbnails, like these, rather than trying to make a super detailed drawing. It's too easy to get trapped drawing little buttons and patterns when you do a full on drawing, so doing simplified thumbnails forces you to look at the character as a whole and understand how the different parts work together.